Deported Activist Fights to Reunite Families

Posted on Aug 20, 2007

After leaving the sanctuary of the Chicago church where she held off immigration authorities for a year, Mexican immigration activist Elvira Arellano was arrested and deported after speaking out at an immigrants’ rights demonstration in Los Angeles. Now in Tijuana, Arellano will continue her efforts to reunite with her American-born son and will keep fighting for families divided by immigration laws.

AP:

Immigration activists said Monday they will continue Arellano’s original plan to go to Washington, D.C., and take part in a prayer meeting and rally Sept. 12. They also called for a national boycott on that date.

“We are calling upon the population of the United States to not go to work, to not send their children to school and to not participate in commerce, either buying or selling anything,” Juan Jose Gutierrez of Latino Movement U.S.A. said during a small protest outside the downtown Los Angeles federal building. Read more

AP Photo / Julio Cortez

Elvira Arellano cuddles with her U.S.-born son, Saul, in her temporary sanctuary at Chicago’s Adalberto United Methodist Church in this file photo from last year.